The Central Board meets at least once every quarter. Apart from holding meeting in Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and one in New Delhi after the Union Budget which is addressed by the Finance Minister, the rest of the meetings are held in other state capitals by rotation. The main function of the Central Board of Directors of the Reserve Bank is to provide overall direction to the Reserve Bank’s affairs.

Earlier, the Governor met the Chief Minister Miss Mamata Banerjee and discussed issues of mutual interest. The Governor also met local bankers and State Government officials. At this meeting, the following decisions were taken:

Banks will endeavour to achieve credit deposit (CD) ratio of 65 per cent by the end of March 2012. Current CD ratio in the State was 62 per cent which was significantly lower than the national average of 74 per cent. A higher target for CD ratio to be achieved during 2012-13 would be reviewed after that but would largely be subject to demand for large corporate credit.

Banks will make efforts to cover at least one lakh Self-Help Groups (SHGs) by March 2012. There are total 1.55 lakh SHGs to be credit linked in the State, out of which 29,622 SHGs have already been covered by banks.

To get a clear picture of ground realities with regard to loans to be availed by General Credit Card holders, a team of officials of State government, banks and the Reserve Bank will conduct a survey in four districts of West Bengal – Murshidabad, Howrah, Malda and North 24-Parganas. The survey would be completed by end-December 2011. Based on the findings of the survey, the SLBC will decide on the way forward.

All the 7486 villages with population of more than 2000, will be covered by banking facilities by March 2012 under the Financial Inclusion Plan. Banks had already covered 4348 villages by November 2011.

State government will give all support to the Reserve Bank in extending electronic benefit transfer (EBT), to begin with, in four districts where pilot project had already been initiated. The objective, however, will be to extend EBT facility to all the districts in West Bengal covering all villages. Banks would need to work out modalities with the active support of State governments in this regard.

In order to give boost to credit in the State and to ensure district level participation, the Chief Minister has agreed to attend one State Level Bankers’ Committee (SLBC) meeting in the next three months.

To encourage credit enhancement and financial inclusion at the district level, the District Magistrate, Regional Managers of banks and officials of the Reserve Bank will attend the District Consultative Committee meetings.

The urgency of extending State contribution for recapitalisation of the three Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) in West Bengal necessary for their improved performance was reiterated.